Orientational order of 1,3-dichloro-2-ethenylbenzene in liquid crystal solvents

The order parameter matrices of a molecule that has no symmetry, 1,3-dichloro-2-ethenylbenzene, dissolved in two different nematic liquid-crystal solvents are analyzed in terms of various models for the intermolecular mean-field potential. In a mixture of liquid crystals for which the interaction between the molecular quadrupole moment tensor and the average electric field gradient of the nematic solvent has been minimized, the orientational order is best described by models for the short-range anisotropic potential. The most successful potentials are written in terms of anisotropic interactions between the solute surface and the liquid-crystal mean field. This represents a strong test of such models because they simultaneously fit the five independent orientational parameters obtained from the same solute, thus removing the problems associated with comparing results among different solutes in either the same or a different sample tube.